As a result of patients' preference for large hospitals and specialists, there is a tendency for patients to concentrate constantly at medical institutions in the secondary medical area and the tertiary medical area. Also, patients who need long-term medical care including home care are increasing because of changes in disease patterns such as lifestyle-related illness. Therefore, there is a need to proceed with the division of functions of medical institutions and further promote regional medical cooperation structures. To this end, it is desired that a regional network should be constructed between acute hospitals and backup hospitals so as to construct an environment where cooperation can be made smoothly for patients.
PTL 1 is a system in which, with reference to a medical cooperation database, a backup hospital (referral destination medical institution) that is suitable as a referral destination for a patient of an acute hospital (referral source medical institution) is selected and referred to. Conditions of selection include patient's condition, available hospital ward, medication, institution, medical treatment fee, region of location, number of specialists, presence/absence of examination equipment and facilities, and the like.